Sweet Briar Slave Cabin
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Images
A view of the cabin in 1913.
A view of the cabin in 1929.
Backstory and Context
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This cabin was built around 1840, most likely by enslaved laborers. Of the over two dozen slave cabins to exist on the Sweet Briar Plantation, this building is the sole one to remain standing. For two decades, enslaved families at the Sweet Briar Plantation lived here.
After emancipation, a series of overseers, such as Logan Anderson, lived in the home with their families. Sometime later, after the college was founded, an employee, Sterling Jones, and his family lived in the cabin for several years.
In the 1920’s, the Sweet Briar Alumnae network requisitioned the building for their offices. For the next century the structure was used for a variety of purposes including a classroom, a chapel, a newspaper office, and a farm tool museum.
In 2013, Dr. Lynn Rainville teamed up with colleagues from across the state to curate an exhibition about African-American Heritage at Sweet Briar. The exhibition, "Roots, Restoration, and Remembrance" is also captured in a downloadable .pdf file on the website listed in the "More Information" section below.